Need Help

[Guest]

I am trying to figuire out how to automatically enter a salesperson in a
specific cell if the salesperson is linked in the sheet already. In the
example below, Joe Little is already entered once in the salesperson column
associated with the customer ARROW PLASTICS. I want to have Joe Little
entered automatically in the row below because that row has ARROW PLASTICS in
it. I have tried VLOOKUP, LOOKUP ETC. as a formula in the SALES PERSON
column but I can't figuire it out. Can anyone help with this function?

Asset Number Date Location Sales Person Customer
70000 October 25, 2005 Customer Joe Little Arrow Plastics
70001 October 25, 2005 Customer Arrow Plastics
70002 October 25, 2005 SHOP Mars
70003 October 26, 2006 Customer Bay Valley
70004 October 26, 2006 Customer Bay Valley
70005 October 27, 2006 Customer Vesuvius

 

[Guest]

VLOOKUP won't help here because the key you're looking up (company name) is
right of the value you want returned (salesperson). Instead, use MATCH to
find the row in which the company first appears, and that result as in INDEX
into the salesperson column:
If company and salesperson are in columns E and D, respectively, with column
headers in row 1 and the first missing name in cell D3, then in D3 enter the
formula =INDEX(D$22,MATCH(E3,E$2:E2,FALSE)). Copy that through column D as
needed.
As written, that will return #N/A when it encounters a new company. If you
prefer a blank in that case, use =if(isna( formula_above ),"", formula_above).
HTH. --Bruce